Chapter 12
Two Entities
Astro looked over at Bold in confusion. The words shooting star meant nothing to her as she'd never heard the term before. She only understood the meaning of the words as two separate articles. The mare noticed her questioning look and frowned in confusion herself. "What does shooting star mean?" Astro asked her confused, "And what does it have to do with wishing?"
"You mean you don't know?" she questioned looking astonished.
"N-no." she muttered blushing in embarrassment at her apparent lack of knowledge.
"So you really don't know anything about anything we do? They didn't teach you anything about us on the Astral Plain?" she queried looking almost offended. Astro was just confused as to why the mare didn't have these answers herself. As a star pony she must've been born on the Astral Plain as well and come down herself, so why didn't she understand it?
"No, I wasn't taught anything. You're a star pony too so why don't you know about what happens on the Astral Plain?" she argued.
"I've never actually been up to the Astral Plain." she explained, "I was born on the surface like most of the star ponies who do live on the surface. It's not exactly a common occurrence that a pony from the Plain comes to live on the surface. Well, I suppose not rare per se, but the number that are naturally born on the surface and live here far outweighs the number that weren't born here and live here."
"You were born here?" she asked astonished.
"Yeah, there's a whole star pony society down here just like on the Astral Plain, but not nearly as large of course. We'd have been found by now if our population was that large." she informed her, but then added more as an afterthought, "Still, it's not like a little bit more staff wouldn't be appreciated."
"What do you mean 'more staff'?" she inquired.
"More ponies to help with the work. I may've never been to the Plain, but I have heard a lot about it, we have nine or ten ponies who came from there here, and although The Wish Division is pretty different from The Constellation Order one thing does seem to remain constant is the work ethic." she told her simply.
"The Constellation Order?" she questioned not recognizing the term.
"It's the official name for the group that lives on the Astral Plain since they're in charge of the constellations. We are in charge of shooting stars which ponies make wishes on, hence The Wish Division." she answered.
"You don't seem to have a problem explaining to me." she commented.
"What?" she asked confused by the comment.
"You said earlier that you weren't very good at this, but you seem fine at it to me." she stated simply.
"I dunno, I guess. Still, I think you would understand it better from a pony from the Astral Plain." she responded.
"Why?" she queried genuinely curious.
"Cause they can better understand what you understand. All of this has been common sense to me since I was younger than you." she explained.
"Oh, okay." she replied feeling a little senseless as she knew none of those things.
"Not like that makes you any less though, you just don't get it cause you haven't lived here is all. I'm sure you'll catch on quick." she reassured her as if reading her thoughts.
"Thank you." she mumbled appreciatively.
"No problem." she finished dismissively.
The two fell silent after that as they continued toward their destination. Many thoughts were swirling around in her head as she tried to process all that she had just heard. There was a whole other population living on the surface that she and nopony else on the Astral Plain knew about. Of course she didn't know if she was the only one who had been kept ignorant, but it didn't seem to her like she was the only one who didn't know. The very idea of The Wish Division existing confused her, but it did appear that despite the position that she had been in the process of being trained for it had still been kept from her. She was certain that North knew of the place's existence and had purposefully kept the knowledge from her. It annoyed her and nearly made her angry, but she withheld the emotion. Still a question spiraled through her mind as she walked: Why would he keep this from me? She wanted to ask him herself, but felt as though that would be impossible.
That simple ambling walk returned to her as she let her thoughts travel. Her face was to the ground and her thoughts spun skyward as she walked slowly onwards. Her mood wasn't necessarily downcast, but she wasn't in the brightest of spirits either. She was too confused to know for sure how she felt. Too much was being thrown at her at once for her to truly comprehend all of it. She had always been good at taking in and processing information, but this was far more than she knew what to do with. Her mind was being overworked for the first time in her short life and she didn't like the feeling of it. Of course she had been experiencing many new things that she hadn't enjoyed, but there had been much to love as well. She found herself absentmindedly readjusting the cap on her head.
"How did you get all of your stuff?" Bold inquired as she noticed the motion.
"Oh, well North gave me all my school stuff and Sp-
"Wait." Bold stumbled and nearly fell, but collected herself, "You said North? As in current leader of The Constellation Order!?"
"Yes, but how do you know about him if you've lived here your whole life?" she inquired confused by her immediate recognition of the name.
"Who doesn't know his name? He's the first North Star to have ever made contact with The Wish Division for centuries!" she exclaimed in response.
"Really?" she wondered aloud slightly shocked.
"Yeah. Before him the two separate populations had their borders completely closed to each other. No communication ever went to or from either side. All the ponies that had come down from the Astral Plain were really just lost foals who had wandered accidentally into the Night Field and were found by our ponies. Down here nopony knew quite where they were coming from since our place of transport is far off from where you all have your settlement set up. It also went the other way as well, ponies from our group would wander off into the Night Field and never come back. I think it would be pretty safe to assume that they ended up on your side of the field and decided to stay there. The two bases are set up on opposite sides of the Night Field. North however found ours when he was just a kid apparently, but unlike the majority who just start living down here he stayed on The Astral Plain. Once he was in charge he opened communications to Head Sector. He reopened the teleportation center that you all have on your side of the Night Field. Ever since there's been more and more movement in between the two, but it is still restricted quite a bit. You don't seem to know anything about us, and like I've already told you we know next to nothing about you." she explained.
Again her mind spun into a frenzy as it was bombarded by all the new information. So many questions had spawned in her head as Bold had spoken, but she kept them all to herself. She remained silent as she tried to absorb everything that she was being told, but of course that was impossible. What she really wanted was to be able to go to school and see her friends, but the building had of course been closed earlier that day and she was certain that it would be the same if she returned to it. Wanting to focus on something simpler as well as wanting to give the previous information time to settle in her mind she decided to work that out first.
"So, why was there nopony at school today?" she inquired simply.
"Oh, well it's the weekend and schools are closed on weekends as well as some workplaces, but not all." she explained. After seeing the still confused look on Astro's face she explained further. "I suppose they don't have weeks on The Astral Plain do they, but you have days right?"
"Of course we have days." she retorted slightly surprised that Bold needed to ask for that information.
"Well, a week is seven days, five week days and two weekend days. Yesterday was Friday, the last week day, and today is Saturday, the first day of the weekend." she told her, "You'll catch on fast, it's not exactly a difficult system to understand, you've just never been exposed to it, that's all." She nodded despite not feeling entirely sure that she would ever understand the way that the surface world works. "And here's where you'll learn it all." Bold proclaimed as she stopped walking and gesturing proudly to a rather simple looking building in front of her before adding in a quieter tone, "The Wish Division base of operations."